Friday, April 1, 2011

Frank Lake - April 1st, 2011

I was chatting with a guy at the camera store and our conversation turned to birds and he mentioned Frank Lake which is just east of High River. He told me that he'd been down there and had seen a bunch of short eared owls. This piqued my interest so I did a bit of research on it and found out that it's a Ducks Unlimited Wetland project and is one of 597 important bird areas in Canada, and there are owls there. Given that it wasn't real far away I drove down on a Friday afternoon to check it out. I really didn't know what to expect.

The weather was grey and overcast, and reasonably cold. There wasn't anyone around when I got there. For the most part there were Geese and Ducks. I did see a hawk being chased by some gulls. Later while walking through a field three short eared owls (short eared owls are ground dwellers) flushed out of the grass and flew away. They were opposite the direction that I was looking when I disturbed them so by the time I noticed them they were already quite far away. I took some shots, but the owls were too small in the frame.

I did get a shot of some geese that I like.. There were lots of geese. LOTS.

Anyway, I'll have to go back out once it warms up, maybe bring the kayak.. I wonder if there are rules about not using the kayak on the lake. I'll have to investigate.